Route 66, 2019

So, we had so much fun on this road trip. We laughed and talked the entire drive, which made it go by faster.  We decided we would try to stop at every kitschy place we could find. You all know I like odd places.  There were some that we didn't get to stop by, but I ended up adding the entire Route 66 to my bucket list.  We left late at night from Disneyland on the 30th of March.  We stayed at the park late to watch the fireworks, which was well worth it.  We also stayed late so we could spend time with Tyler, my son.  He was deploying in a few days to South Korea, so we were moving Maddi back home.  After leaving Disney, we got slowed down in traffic and at McDonald's.  We waited in line at McDonald's for AT LEAST 45 minutes, and it was insane!  All we wanted was a quick snack and a sweet tea for the road.  Maddi drove for quite awhile before we decided that we were tired and we needed to shut our eyes for a few minutes.  We ended up stopping at a rest area right outside of California, which was our goal.  The following morning, on the 31st,  we were in Arizona and we found an alien outpost to stop by an Alien Outpost.


We decided to take a detour to visit the Grand Canyon. This was about. 4-5 hour detour by the time we got there, took some pictures, and got back on track with our route. I wrote an entire  section on this in more data il, but there are a few pictures below.

Once we got back on track, we finally made it to New Mexico around four in the afternoon and hit quite a bit of traffic.  The scenery was beautiful, so we didn't mind getting slowed down.  I don't know that I could ever get tired of the huge rock formations.  We ended up stopping late in the evening and getting a hotel room.  Early the next morning, on the 1st of April, we got up and hit the road again.

         

   


          



We made it to Texas around eleven in the morning.  We were doing really well with our timing. One thing that scared the crapola out of me, was the rest areas.  There were signs for us to beware of rattlesnakes.  Uhmmmmm.....I told Maddi and Sophie that if a leaf even shakes or makes a noise near me, I'm flipping my shit and running.  It would be every girl for herself. We noticed that even the trash cans had strong personalities!  We were only in Texas for a short amount of time, before we were in Oklahoma. We were just driving through the top hat of Texas. 




Oklahoma took much longer to drive through. Our goal was to at least make it to Missouri, which we accomplished.  Oklahoma was fun.  We stopped by some cute souvenir shops, met a buffalo, and got sick.  Yes....We got sick.  All of us.  We ate some bad meat at a Taco Belle, and had to utilize those souvenir shop bathrooms in a bad way.  The joke from there on out, was that we used the bathroom in every state on the way home.  We saw some tumbleweeds and got some cactuses at one of the shops and then we were on our way.  At this point, we were basically just ready to be home. 

           



The night of the 1st, we stayed right inside Missouri.  The following morning, we got up and hit up the Bass Pro shop.  We spent a few hours shopping and looking around.  When we got back on the road, we kept seeing signs for Uranus.  We were dying to stop. Thankfully, we didn't miss our turn.  We literally had a fun time and laughed so much!  We made it to Highland, Illinois around 2 in the afternoon and decided to get something to eat at the Mile High Pie restaurant.  We got a few pies to bring home for family.  Finally, we were only a few hours from home!  We ended up getting home around 6 in the evening. It felt wonderful to be home, but we were also thankful for such a great trip and that we made it home safely. 

                

                

Mile High Pie 

There are so many places I would have loved to see along the way. This has been added to my bucket list. I would love to have a few weeks with my Husband to go from the start of Route 66 in Chicago, and to take it clear to Malibu. There are books and websites that you can follow.

XOXO...Becky

The Grand Canyon 2019

I was completely unprepared for how the Grand Canyon would make me feel.  When we finally walked from the parking lot, and looked down, I swore that if a bald eagle flew by, I would bawl.  We took this detour on our way home from California on a spur of the moment situation.  We had just spent a day in Port Hueneme visiting Tyler and Maddi, then four days at Disneyland.  We were worn out, but we were so glad we decided to make the trip.  We were driving, because Maddi was moving home while Tyler was deploying to South Korea.  It's much cheaper for her to live at home, than to pay the high prices in California.  We got into the park for free, because Maddi had her military ID with her, which was nice.  We visited the south rim.  If I was to go back, I would want to spend a few days by doing the driving tour around the whole thing.  Friends of ours did the burro tour and hiked rode down to the bottom.  This would also be something interesting to do.  Enjoy our pictures, but keep in mind, pictures don't do this park justice!   

XOXO...Becky

Disney World, 2018, Days 7-9

We are on the last leg of our Disney Vacay.  Only three days left! We were already getting sad about leaving.  Day 7 was spent at the resort and the Blizzard Beach waterpark and then a half day at Animal Kingdom.  Brad and I basically let the kids ride all the rides and do what they wanted to do at the waterpark.  We would have them check in every 30 minutes or so.  We got there when the park opened, and we left around three, which was fine, because it was beginning to look like rain. The waterpark had a nice sandy area in front of the wave pool, where we decided to camp out for the afternoon.  Much like the resort, there was a drink mug that you could buy to get free refills.  They had slushies as part of the free refill as well, so the kids took full advantage of this.  We got to try the beach sand pail full of ice cream.  The kids loved it.  It was able to feel all of us. Overall, it was a good day to sit back and relax, especially since we went so hard at the parks. When we got back to the resort, we got cleaned up and dressed for a night at Animal Kingdom.  We had another ride we had a fast pass for in the world of Pandora.  For an early dinner, we ate in Pandora at Satu'li Canteen.  We had the cheeseburger steamed pods because we had heard so much about them.  We also tried the blueberry cream cheese mouse, which was hands down, one of my favorite desserts to date, in the parks.  We didn't do much in the park except ride some rides and we did our fast passes. 


Our beach at the Caribbean Resort

Sand Pail Ice cream treat!

We love Blizzard Beach Goofy!

 

Pandora

Expedition Everest



Tree of Life

Pandora

Cheeseburger pods

Blueberry cheesecake mousse

Since we really haven't spent much time at our resort, we decided to sleep in just a tad bit on day 8, begin to prepare to head home, and hang out at the resort pool.  We enjoyed the morning exploring and relaxing.  The Caribbean Beach resort has a huge themed pool not far from our room.  It was set up like an old Spanish fort.  There were slides and lots of places to sit and relax. Goofy and Daisy came out to entertain the kids.  They had fun pool games to keep the kids entertained.

                 



 We decided we needed a little park therapy in the afternoon, so we voted, and the kids decided that we would hit up Magic Kingdom. I was happy with this decision, because I could finally try out a DOLE WHIP!!!  We rode a few rides, got a few pictures, then we decided to take the Monorail over to Epcot.  Riding the Monorail was one thing that we wanted to do, so we decided to make the most of it.  While at Epcot, we visited the countries that we didn't get to see the first day we visited.  We rode some rides, met a lot of characters and we ended up eating dinner in Mexico at La Cantina de San Angel.  I'm not a heavy drinker, but I ended up getting a margarita.  I'm in Mexico, so I felt like it was a must.  Well, that margarita hit me hard! I was a bit giddy after finishing my one small drink.  We were glad that we made an entire day of it, and we headed back to the resort late to finish packing.  Before we left, we had some snack credits that we needed to spend, so we got a bunch of packaged rice krispie treats to take home.  We figured they would be good snacks for the road. We have had a long, fun and exciting week. We were sad that it was over. It is no longer a one and done type of vacation. We will most certainly try to get here every so often!

Dole Whip!

Last castle pictures

                      

          

                                                                   Last castle pictures 

We wanted this balloon picture so bad!

We loved riding the monorail.  It was relaxing and it gave us a look around some of the parks and resorts that we had not seen. 



Pluto 



Our last and final picture in any of the parks. We were happy that we had such
An amazing time, but we were also sad to be leaving it all behind.

On our last and final day, we didn't have any more park tickets, but we did have one more dining reservation planned.  We had an Ohana breakfast scheduled.  We had heard mixed revues, so we were excited to see what the hype was all about.  The resort itself was beautiful.  The lobby was very beachy and cute.  We were in line for our reservation for what felt like forever.  We ended up being seated an hour past our time.  So far, we weren't impressed.  We felt like they had us herded like cattle.  Once we were in and finally seated, we had the best view of the entire place, I swear!  The family dining experience was neat.  They sat a large bowl in the middle of the table, with waffles, meats, eggs and potatoes. They had a breakfast juice that was quite yummy.  We had also heard about their bread service, and it was to die for!  During breakfast, Mickey, Lilo and Stitch came to visit the table. Sophie and I had on our Stitch ears and shirts on for the occasion.  

 

       

                                             The lobby of the Polynesian and the bread service

 

                   

                                               Stitch Waffles!!!  Braden at the entrance to Ohana

 

                                         Just like every other restaurant, the kids got a Birthday celebration

 

                                                       We love meeting characters, Braden....not so much :)

 

                                                               After breakfast, they had a line to meet Pluto

 

We loved the view from our seats!

 

 

XOXO...Becky